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Distance runners, sprinters not enough for Berkeley
Alameda wins ACCAL track & field meet
Berkeley High dominated the sprints and Alex Enscoe won the mile and two-mile events on Thursday, but that wasn’t enough to beat the massive Alameda squad as the Hornets won both the boys’ and girls’ sides of an ACCAL double-dual track & field meet on Thursday.
Enscoe, the ACCAL cross-country champion last fall, won both distance events going away against Alameda, the only other ACCAL school with a strong cross-country program. But only two other Berkeley boys won events, with Germaine Baird winning the 200-meter dash and Sean Young blowing away the field in the 100-meter dash. Young also finished second in the 200 and Baird third in the 400, with both contributing to the Berkeley’s win in the 4x100-meter relay.
Alameda, on the other hand, swept the top three spots in three events, including both hurdles races, and simply outmanned the competition, scoring 114 points to Berkeley’s 69. Both Richmond and Encinal finished with 15 points.
The Hornets were even more dominant on the girls’ side, taking 153 points to Berkeley’s 46. Rebekah Payne, Gabrielle Ward and Joy Broussard were responsible for 32 of Berkeley’s points, with Payne winning the 110-meter hurdles and the 200 and Ward winning the 100 while finishing just behind Payne in the 200. Broussard was second in the 100 and third in the 200.
Berkeley High’s team has been turned upside-down this season, with just two male sprinters (Baird and Young) and the trio of girls representing what has traditionally been a dominating area for the ’Jackets. The distance program, on the other hand, has enjoyed a resurgence with Enscoe leading the way. Head coach Darrell Hampton said that while his short-track events may be coming up short right now, there is hope for the future with a group of younger sprinters.
“We’ve just got some young numbers right now,” Hampton said. “For the last couple of years we’ve had a real solid sprint corps, but most of them have graduated and we’re depleted at the top level. But we’ve got a few more coming up.”
